The Escapades of Two Small Chihuahuas, the Cat They Love to Tease, and Various Other Animal Tales

Mar 15, 2009

A(n Almost) Springtime Walk

Today Griffin and I took Edison and Bram out for a walk. We started out in the back yard so I could give my new "coupler" a go before we hit the busy street that we need to briefly walk down to get to the empty and fairly deserted road that we take when we want a quiet walk and are feeling too lazy to go very far from home. The coupler is a great idea: you can link two dogs together on one leash and still give them a couple of feet between one another, but it forces them to walk together in an orderly way rather than heading off in two different directions, something I desperately need while I get used to walking two hyper little dogs at once, especially when one is still learning how to navigate while on a leash.

It worked fairly well for about a second and a half, or until Edison saw something intriguing off to his right and dragged poor little Bram off with him. You'd think that having a dog who is a bit over six pounds and a dog who is a bit over four pounds doesn't make for such a big difference in size, but trust me, with dogs who are this small to begin with, that two pounds makes a world of difference. I got them under control again, but once more only for a moment, when Edison again tore off with Bram bumbling along sideways next to him, banging against Edison the whole way. So much for the coupler. Clearly it will have to wait until both boys are relatively close in size and Bram can hold his ground should Edison decide to take a tiny detour from our predetermined route. And considering how the trial run went, it was a good thing that I took Griffin's advice and tried it out before we hit the street.

Once we got the dogs back onto their separate leashes and made our way to the empty road, all went very well. Bram walked beautifully and even made it about halfway down the lane before he began to tire, which is a pretty fair distance. Not bad for such a tiny little guy. I picked him up and carried him back to the house while Edison walked home like a big boy, and by the time we had gotten back to our front yard, Bram was bleary-eyed, head-wobbly, and half-conscious in my arms.

It was a good day all around: sunny, warm and tantalizingly springlike; and there's nothing better than spending a day like that out and about with your two favorite pooches.

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Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

-Anatole France

The indifference, callousness and contempt that so many people exhibit toward animals is evil first because it results in great suffering in animals, and second because it results in an incalculably great impoverishment of the human spirit.